Beautiful pair of early 70s wood racing ("langrenn") skis from Blå-Skia. Blå-Skia, in Norwegian, literally means "the blue ski". Blå-Skia was an early pioneer in wood racing skis; its founder, Ivar Halvorsen worked early in his career under one of the first producers of laminated wood skis. Halvorsen took this knowledge and applied it to the world of ski racing, developing light, fast skis with different cambers for different snow conditions. However, like all but 1 or 2 Norwegian ski manufacturers, Blå-Skia was swept away by the tide of equipment innovation that hit the nordic ski industry in the 1970s, and by the early 80s the company had closed.
This pair of skis was recently acquired in Norway; it is a very clean example that has undergone both top and base refinishing by the techs at Skifabrikk. The result is beautiful - skis that look like they were just shipped from the factory. Unlike most wood base skis, the hickory base of these skis has been treated with an epoxy-based sealant known by Blå-Skia as "treplast" (literally "plastic wood"); the result is a surface that repels moisture better than untreated wood and, most importantly, does not need to be sealed with pine tar. These skis are especially good in wet conditions where a traditional tar-sealed hickory or birch base ski might tend to attract moisture and slow down. A "langrenn" ski is a racing ski.
The edges of the skis are made of lignostone, which is a hard, compressed beech product that was developed specially for wood skis.
BINDING NOTES: These skis come with a pair of Rottefella 79mm 3-pin bindings. Yes, you read that right - 79mm. In short, boot and binding combinations evolved from a variety of boot sole widths and binding pin counts to a standard 3-pin, 75mm width; the latter became "nordic norm" in the early 70s. One of the last stages of evolution leading to this was to settle on 3 standard binding widths - 71mm ("smal"), 75mm, and 79mm ("bred" or wide). Note that the current standard, NNN, is simply short for "new nordic norm".
Bindings will be removed for shipment, to protect the ski bases from damage. If the buyer does not want the bindings, Skifabrikk will remove the bindings and deduct $10 from the purchase price.
Skifabrikk ski techs have over 50 years of experience skiing, racing, and preparing cross-country skis, both wood and fiberglass. Please contact us with any questions.
Size: 210cm Camber: stiff (6cm+ at ski center) Weight (pair): 2250gm w/ bindings Mfg date: early 70s Base: hickory/lignostone/"treplast" sealant
